Tropical Malady: Drama. Written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In Thai with English subtitles. (Not rated. 110 minutes. At the Lumiere.)

There may be a flood of angry e-mails coming my way for recommending the entirely unconventional, hypnotic, meandering film "Tropical Malady." If you haven't been introduced to the world of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, come on in. Just leave your expectations and previous movie- watching DNA at the door and let his latest film wash over you.

Then e-mail away, if you must.

"Tropical Malady" is an experiment, a strange, dreamlike meditation on humanity, our need for love and our inner demons. It is actually two films; the first half describes the tender courtship of a soldier and a country boy who works in an ice-cutting plant, then it switches gears to follow another soldier (or is it the same soldier? Both are played by Sakda Kaewbuadee) into the jungle, where he pursues the ghost of a tiger, which at times transforms itself into a shaman (like the young man in the first half, he is played by Banlop Lomnoi).

The plots of both stories are not apparent. They are mood pieces, with often simple moments in which Keng, the soldier, and Tong, the country boy, become more comfortable with each other. Sometimes they are in the city, where the sound of street traffic and passers-by drown out anything they might say. Sometimes they spend time in the rural area where Tong's family lives.

There are clues that there is something mystical afoot; some cows are slaughtered, and local legends supply theories.

And then there's the jungle, as the soldier goes through his own heart of darkness, confronting his fears as well as the supernatural.

What does it all add up to? There will be different takes on that subject. The one constant, however, is Weerasethakul's mastery of shot composition and his use of textures, both man-made (a shoe store, a karaoke bar) and natural (the dense lushness of the jungle). The rhythm of his movies is also unique --

the languid pacing would come off as clumsy in lesser hands, but like other iconoclastic filmmakers, Weerasethakul makes it almost look easy to achieve; he's a natural.

Weerasethakul began his feature career with a wonderfully odd film, "Mysterious Object at Noon," an experimental mix of documentary and fiction about a film crew that travels Thailand asking people to, in their own words, contribute to the next chapter of a story. His second feature, "Blissfully Yours," was a meditation on achieving a mental state of freedom in a world where daily life is so battering. Neither has what you'd call a plot.

That's a problem for some, but frankly, it's wearisome to watch the same plot patterns play out in film after film. I'm beginning to think that the success of a film isn't based so much on what happens onscreen, but how you feel about it afterward.

"Tropical Malady" is an intriguing emotional and intellectual puzzle that made me feel exhilarated and contemplative. There are far too few films that do that.